Voter suppression by the Republicans might be a big factor in this upcoming election. Obama is ahead in the opinion polls, but the GOP is trying to shave off percentage points by interfering with Democratic voters. They are doing this by passing "Voter ID" laws, even though in-person voting fraud, the kind that a Voter ID law would affect, is about as common as you winning the lottery. But what Voter ID laws do is interfere with poor people voting (many poor people don't have driver's licenses). Republicans and Tea Baggers are also organizing to intimidate and harass minorities, especially African Americans, at the voting booths. It's incredible that in 2012 we have to fight just for our right to vote, like this was Russia or China, but that's the way it is, with the GOP becoming a blatantly undemocratic force.

This is how it works today: In an ostensible hunt for voter fraud, a Tea Party group, True the Vote, descends on a largely minority precinct and combs the registration records for the slightest misspelling or address error. It uses this information to challenge voters at the polls, and though almost every challenge is baseless, the arguments and delays frustrate those in line and reduce turnout.

The thing that’s different from the days of overt discrimination is the phony pretext of combating voter fraud. Voter identity fraud is all but nonexistent, but the assertion that it might exist is used as an excuse to reduce the political rights of minorities, the poor, students, older Americans and other groups that tend to vote Democratic.

In The Times on Monday, Stephanie Saul described how the plan works. True the Vote grew out of a Tea Party group in Texas, the King Street Patriots, with the assistance of Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by the Koch brothers that works to elect conservative Republicans. It has developed its own software to check voter registration lists against driver’s license and property records. Those kinds of database matches are notoriously unreliable because names and addresses are often slightly different in various databases, but the group uses this technique to challenge more voters.

In 2009 and 2010, for example, the group focused on the Houston Congressional district represented by Sheila Jackson Lee, a black Democrat. After poring over the records for five months, True the Vote came up with a list of 500 names it considered suspicious and challenged them with election authorities. Officials put these voters on “suspense,” requiring additional proof of address, but in most cases voters had simply changed addresses. That didn’t stop the group from sending dozens of white “poll watchers” to precincts in the district during the 2010 elections, deliberately creating friction with black voters.

WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee has abruptly cut ties to a consulting firm hired for get-out-the-vote efforts in seven presidential election swing states after Florida prosecutors launched an investigation into possible fraud in voter registration forms.

Working through state parties, the RNC has sent more than $3.1 million this year to Strategic Allied Consulting, a company formed in June by Nathan Sproul, an Arizona voting consultant. Sproul has operated other firms that have been accused in past elections of improprieties designed to help Republican candidates, including dumping registration forms filled out by Democrats, but none of those allegations led to any criminal charges.

The next day, King Street Patriots—many of them aging white suburbanites—poured into polling places in heavily black and Hispanic neighborhoods around Houston, looking for signs of voter fraud. Reports of problems at the polls soon began surfacing in the Harris County attorney’s office and on the local news. The focus of these reports was not fraud, however, but alleged voter intimidation. Among other things, poll observers were accused of hovering over voters, blocking lines of people who were trying to cast ballots, and, in the words of Assistant County Attorney Terry O’Rourke, “getting into election workers’ faces.”

The Patriots’ alleged activities touched off a furor. The county attorney’s office, which received some 50 complaints of voter intimidation, launched an investigation. The head of the local chapter of the New Black Panthers went on TV to warn that the group would “not tolerate any intimidation.” The Texas Democratic Party blasted the Patriots for what it called “1960s style” tactics and filed a lawsuit challenging the group’s tax-exempt status. Undaunted, the group’s founder, a suburban soccer mom and small-business owner named Catherine Engelbrecht, addressed a boisterous crowd at the group’s headquarters the next week. “The nation is ready for something like this,” she said. In the months that followed, she began laying out plans to recruit and train 1 million poll watchers around the country by Election Day 2012.

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Afaceinthematrix

It wouldn't surprise me if I lived to see the death of the GOP. It seems like their average member has grandchildren my age. From my observations, they are a bunch of old white guys. Birth rates in America are at an all time low and a large percentage of our population growth is coming from immigration. There are less "white" people and that is decreasing. Furthermore, younger people are more likely to vote Democrat or third party. Also, non-white people are less likely to vote Republican. Ergo, the people that actually vote for them are dying out. I also think that Republicans tend to be overly religious* and as secularism rises, their votes will probably fall. I don't have evidence for anything that I am saying, this is just based on my personal observations. I see all of my devout Christian, stereotypical deep-South Oklahoma family being hardcore Republicans. Every time that I see them I am glad that I live in Los Angeles and not Oklahoma or Texas.

*I remember reading an interview where Bush Sr. said that atheists shouldn't even be considered citizens because they don't "trust in God." I guess that by his bigoted and ignorant definition of citizen, I haven't been one since high school.

Ankhanu

I find the Voter ID suppression idea somewhat... suspect.
Do Americans really not carry ID? Even poor people who don't drive up here in Canada have governement ID cards; they're acquired through the DMV, and are functionally identical to a Driver's License, except it says Identification Card, instead of Driver's License on it... I think they cost about $15. How do these poor Americans get into bars without their ID? I'm generalizing here, but, poor people seem fairly fond of going to bars... at least as fond as the non-poor. That's a major reason why people here who don't drive have ID cards.

ID cards are not difficult to get.

I'm pretty sure we also have to provide photo ID when we vote... that's how we keep track of who has and who hasn't voted and whether they're in the right place to vote. We vote in whatever district our resident address is in, and only those living in that district can vote at that polling station. We go in, provide ID, have our names crossed off the list and bada-boom, voted.
Our voter turn out is slightly better than American voter turn out too... so it doesn't seem to be a factor slowing people to the polls.

Yes, we have to opt in to vote; i.e. provide our names and addresses to the voter register... but that just makes sense to me. Most people register through their tax returns (there's a box on the first page of the form to tick if you want to include your details to Elections Canada for voter registration; it's there every year whether it's an election year of not).

Afaceinthematrix wrote:

*I remember reading an interview where Bush Sr. said that atheists shouldn't even be considered citizens because they don't "trust in God." I guess that by his bigoted and ignorant definition of citizen, I haven't been one since high school.

If I recall correctly, that quote has never been found, just reports of the quote... as such, it's authenticity is pretty dubious.

ocalhoun

While we're on the subject, mind if I complain a bit about polls that are only open for one day... on a work day... and largely only during working hours?

That seems like it would make voting much more difficult for the everyday working man demographic. -- especially the ones with less influential jobs where they don't get long lunch breaks or time off whenever they ask. -- There have been occasions in the past when I didn't vote because I lacked the time and had a job that wouldn't allow a break to go vote.

How about, instead:
1: Up to 1 month prior to the election, you pick up your ballot from your local post office.
(Or for a small fee, you can order one delivered by phone or online)
(They're available in pretty much all major languages.)
2: Fill out your ballot, and add in your unique voter registration number, that you got when you registered to vote.
3: You have a two-week window to deliver your filled-out ballot to your local post office, or you can just drop it in the mail.
(In a post office drop box: putting it in your mailbox is not recommended, since people might steal it to ensure it doesn't get counted.)
4: The ballots are scanned and counted automatically -- any with duplicate or invalid ID numbers are rejected.

Afaceinthematrix

ocalhoun wrote:

How about, instead:
1: Up to 1 month prior to the election, you pick up your ballot from your local post office.
(Or for a small fee, you can order one delivered by phone or online)
(They're available in pretty much all major languages.)
2: Fill out your ballot, and add in your unique voter registration number, that you got when you registered to vote.
3: You have a two-week window to deliver your filled-out ballot to your local post office, or you can just drop it in the mail.
(In a post office drop box: putting it in your mailbox is not recommended, since people might steal it to ensure it doesn't get counted.)
4: The ballots are scanned and counted automatically -- any with duplicate or invalid ID numbers are rejected.

How does it work in Washington? I vote by mail here in California. I should be getting my ballot sometime soon and I'll fill it out and send it in. Furthermore, I know that many states are now doing early voting for this same reason.

You will, of course, have some people (such as Republicans in this instant) who will oppose purely because the people who will most likely be able to vote are rich and retired people - their major following.

Quote:

If I recall correctly, that quote has never been found, just reports of the quote... as such, it's authenticity is pretty dubious.

Possibly. I think that I remember reading it but it was quite some time ago and so the validity may be in question. It is still an ass thing to say.

And yes, we have ID cards that you acquire through the DMV. I'd imagine that most people have them because you cannot work without identification, you cannot buy alcohol or anything else that is age restricted (although I've been going to bars since I was 19 - I looked quite a bit older), you cannot get into many clubs, you cannot fill out any legal paperwork, etc. I would think that it would be hard to function without an ID. I have a driver's license and I should try to keep track of how many times I have to use it in a given week for something other than driving (just for identification purposes). I just got hired on by a new company to do some part-time work for them on the side and they had to photocopy my ID.

coolclay

I agree Ankhanu, I find it really hard to believe that anyone in any income situation can survive without an ID card of some type. I am pretty sure all states issue ID cards for those that don't drive. I had one for awhile because in Maine you can't even buy alcohol there with an out of state drivers license.

My point being you can't get food stamps, or pretty much any type of government assistance without an ID card, so I agree it is a pretty lame excuse.

What I find unfair is that all states can declare different laws regarding when and how you can vote. I think it should be a standardized at least as far most things are concerned.

For example in Maine anyone can vote by absentee ballot an entire month before the election. I think that is the best so that anyone that is legally capable of voting may. I also think there should be some photo ID verification so that dogs, cats, and the deceased are no longer permitted to vote. It has nothing to do with disallowing the poor to vote. If someone for whatever didn't have the required ID then this would be a good excuse to good one!

I think your ideas would be perfect Ocalhoun!

Ankhanu

ocalhoun wrote:

While we're on the subject, mind if I complain a bit about polls that are only open for one day... on a work day... and largely only during working hours?

That seems like it would make voting much more difficult for the everyday working man demographic. -- especially the ones with less influential jobs where they don't get long lunch breaks or time off whenever they ask. -- There have been occasions in the past when I didn't vote because I lacked the time and had a job that wouldn't allow a break to go vote.

Here, employers are required to allow employees time to vote on voting day.
I agree, the single day is kind of inconvenient, but I know there are advance polling options available there, just as there are here.

Thing is, people who want to vote will vote. A major issue there is just as it is here: people are complacent and won't vote... I doubt there's be much better turn out if the polls came to people's homes or place of work, really.

ocalhoun wrote:

How about, instead:
1: Up to 1 month prior to the election, you pick up your ballot from your local post office.
(Or for a small fee, you can order one delivered by phone or online)
(They're available in pretty much all major languages.)
2: Fill out your ballot, and add in your unique voter registration number, that you got when you registered to vote.
3: You have a two-week window to deliver your filled-out ballot to your local post office, or you can just drop it in the mail.
(In a post office drop box: putting it in your mailbox is not recommended, since people might steal it to ensure it doesn't get counted.)
4: The ballots are scanned and counted automatically -- any with duplicate or invalid ID numbers are rejected.

Sounds workable to me!

deanhills

ocalhoun wrote:

While we're on the subject, mind if I complain a bit about polls that are only open for one day... on a work day... and largely only during working hours?

That seems like it would make voting much more difficult for the everyday working man demographic. -- especially the ones with less influential jobs where they don't get long lunch breaks or time off whenever they ask. -- There have been occasions in the past when I didn't vote because I lacked the time and had a job that wouldn't allow a break to go vote.

How about, instead:
1: Up to 1 month prior to the election, you pick up your ballot from your local post office.
(Or for a small fee, you can order one delivered by phone or online)
(They're available in pretty much all major languages.)
2: Fill out your ballot, and add in your unique voter registration number, that you got when you registered to vote.
3: You have a two-week window to deliver your filled-out ballot to your local post office, or you can just drop it in the mail.
(In a post office drop box: putting it in your mailbox is not recommended, since people might steal it to ensure it doesn't get counted.)
4: The ballots are scanned and counted automatically -- any with duplicate or invalid ID numbers are rejected.

Works that way with Canada. I was able to vote twice on a system like that. Works through Ottawa (I'm originally from Vancouver, BC). I don't think I can do it any longer though, as I've been away from Canada for longer than five years.

hw3patch

Afaceinthematrix wrote:

*I remember reading an interview where Bush Sr. said that atheists shouldn't even be considered citizens because they don't "trust in God." I guess that by his bigoted and ignorant definition of citizen, I haven't been one since high school.

That quote is real. This link does the explaining and provides the evidence better than I could.